Judy Couri:  

Life -- My husband and I live about 3 miles from the ocean in Southern California, and I have now lived longer in SoCal than I've lived in the Quad Cities. Not sure how I feel about that fact since I still love and miss my hometown. Yet, living where I do in sunny CA, it's hard to dislike an area where a person can walk on a beach in the morning and hike a mountain trail in the afternoon since both are within an hour from one another. Not that I do much mountain hiking, but they are majestically sitting there if the need should arise. I do get to see my share of beautiful sunsets, swaying palm trees, ocean surf, mountainous skylines, and some of the best weather in the U.S. it's also possible for a person to plan an outdoor event 6 months in advance and know the weather's gonna be good for it. But as I said, I still miss "home," the Mississippi River, the friendliness of the Midwest, the good restaurants with the best pizza in the country, and I sure do miss the "green" of the Quad Cities (SoCal is kind of brown for the most part). I even find myself missing the snow and cold, which I'm sure is only because I haven't really experienced it in 38 years. We occasionally deal with snow when we travel in our RV, but I haven't lived in it for a long time, so I'm sure my memories are tinged more with nostalgia than the actual reality of dealing with snow. Guess that's the benefit of long-ago memories, right? Retirement -- After working in the aerospace industry, my husband and I are now happily retired. It's great to no longer endure the workday commute in heavy traffic, which is the bane of almost every working Californian. Since the both of us worked at the same place, we were blessed to be able to carpool to work. As a rule, no one here seems to live in the same city where they work, so the daily commute is a real factor in a person's mental health. And because of the never-ending traf...Expand for more